Assessing Mini-Lessons in Action

If you use one of the mini-lessons in your classroom, we would strongly encourage you to assess how well it worked given your reasons for including it in your instruction. To do so, just follow the directions on this form. If you just have a small piece of feedback on one of the mini-lessons, you may also leave a comment for the mini-lesson author.

The goals for the MARGINS Mini-Lesson Observation protocol is to:

  • Gather structured, consistent feedback for the lesson authors based on classroom use. This input focuses both on the mini-lesson itself and on the adequacy of the instructions for use by other educators.
  • Guide reviewers of these lessons to reflect on research based educational practice as a framework for their comments
  • Collect information on the data and observations that the reviewer used to underpin their review
  • Determine which mini-lessons are ready to be made widely available on the website

The design is based on best practices in classroom observation protocols in an abbreviated form. This form allows the instructor teaching to reflect on their own experience. Ultimately, the fundamental premise underpinning this form is that mini-lessons are successful if students achieve the stated goals. However, the form also allows room to collect unforeseen positive learning outcomes attributed to the lessons.

The first step in using the protocol is to download the word version of the form (Microsoft Word 72kB Nov17 08). Be sure to read over it before you run the activity in class so that you know the kinds of things you are looking for while your students are working on the activity so that you can take notes on your printout. Once you have it filled out with your observations, you can use the form below to upload your finished observations.










Otherwise, please use these fields to tell us your experience in using the mini-lesson in class.










How did you use this activity in your teaching? As: (check all that apply)















Why did you use this activity in your class? (check all that apply)














What types of assessment did you use to evaluate your students? (check all that apply)













How do you know that students met your goal? (check all that apply)









Education research identifies several aspects of activities that should enhance student learning. Indicate to what extent these aspects are true for using this activity:




















What additional information would you have liked? (check all that apply)